GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/04 May) — A total of 1,434 job seekers from this city and the neighboring areas were hired on-the-spot (HOTS) in the two Labor Day job fairs here organized by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)-Region 12.
Ofelia Domingo, DOLE Region 12 director, said Monday the hired job applicants comprise 51.97 percent of the 2,759 individuals who qualified for the job vacancies that were opened during the job fairs held in two shopping malls here.
“We were able to surpass our targets in terms of the overall turnout and the (50 percent) rate for the HOTS,” she said in a statement.
The official said some of 3,575 job seekers registered for the area’s Labor Day job fairs, with 2,962 enlisting for local jobs and 613 for overseas placements.
A total of 200 employers had signed up for the job fairs, which were held at the KCC Mall Events and Convention Center and the SM Mall Conference Hall.
DOLE-12 said they were able to generate some 30,000 local and overseas job vacancies for the twin activities.
Aside from the 1,434 job seekers who were hired on-the spot, Domingo said they were able to record 1,028 individuals who were “nearly hired.”
She explained that the applications of the said job seekers were accepted by the employers but are still on process.
Some 51 individuals were also referred by the agency to the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority for skills trainings, she said.
“We will continue to partner with local and overseas employers to help more residents in the region get decent jobs,” Domingo said.
Last year, DOLE-12 was able to generate around 28,000 overseas and local job vacancies in three major job fairs in the region.
A total of 195 employers participated in the two activities, which resulted to the hiring “on-the-spot” of 1,899 of the 3,687 qualified job applicants. (MindaNews)
